Crazy people in cars

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steve50

Disenchanted Member
Location
West Yorkshire
I saw quite a number of lunatics in that video, it never fails to amaze me the number of stupid people who slow down to take a look at the scene of an incident even on motorways almost causing and in some cases causing further incidents.
 

toffee

Guru
[QUOTE 4246818, member: 9609"]I know there is no bicycles in this video, but it is due to the increasing amount of utter lunatics like this driving cars that I only cycle on very quiet roads.

nothing happens in the second half of the video, but do keep watching after the accident.
[/QUOTE]


If you think that's bad you would have a fit at the lunatic driver that over took the car coming towards me yesterday and then the 2 motorcyclists who over took me immediately afterwards.

Three people who did not seem to want to live.

Derek
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
it never fails to amaze me the number of stupid people who slow down to take a look at the scene of an incident even on motorways almost causing and in some cases causing further incidents.

That's a myth.

If you see a queue of cars ahead of you, do you slow down or plough into the back of it ? The same goes for everyone who has "slowed down to look at the accident" - they haven't. The only exception is the vehicle at the front of the queue in each lane - they will have braked involuntarily while the accident was happening in front of their eyes. As you or I would have done.
 

steve50

Disenchanted Member
Location
West Yorkshire
[QUOTE 4247025, member: 9609"]why do people slowing down get the blame for causing an accident, surely when people crash into the back of each other the fault lies with the person not being observant and driving too close.[/QUOTE]
When incidents happen on motorways it is not unusual to see other motorists "rubber necking" slowing down to see whats happened, this is dangerous practice when there are other motorists approaching at 70mph and yes it should be the case that all motorists should be observant and not drive too close to the vehicle in front of them but it does happen especially on motorways mainly due to drivers suddenly slowing down to take a butchers at the scene of a collision only to have the following vehicle run into the back of them, in my view the lead car rapidly slowing down is as much to blame for the shunt as the driver of the vehicle that hits him. People should not slow down when passing the scene of an incident on motorways, it causes congestion and further incidents that could otherwise be avoided.
Prime example of rubber necking,
 

steve50

Disenchanted Member
Location
West Yorkshire
That's a myth.

If you see a queue of cars ahead of you, do you slow down or plough into the back of it ? The same goes for everyone who has "slowed down to look at the accident" - they haven't. The only exception is the vehicle at the front of the queue in each lane - they will have braked involuntarily while the accident was happening in front of their eyes. As you or I would have done.
So that then accounts for traffic slowing down for the duration of the clean up after the crash and the police stood at the side of the carriageway waving the traffic on in an effort to get it moving again, I have been caught up in traffic like that on more than one occasion and it was literally people slowing down to take a look at the scene of a crash.

No it isn't a myth
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/02/car-accidents-prevention
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/common-causes-of-car-accidents.html
 
So that then accounts for traffic slowing down for the duration of the clean up after the crash and the police stood at the side of the carriageway waving the traffic on in an effort to get it moving again, I have been caught up in traffic like that on more than one occasion and it was literally people slowing down to take a look at the scene of a crash.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/02/car-accidents-prevention
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/common-causes-of-car-accidents.html
There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.
Yes, that's why: traffic behaves like a bit like a gas below and a liquid above a certain density IIRC. Sadly, many people will happily ignore non-camera-controlled speed limits on motorways and large dual carriageways and happily chase up to the next congestion in a clear case of beggar-thy-neighbour.

If there are few penalties for speeding, then it seems to one's own selfish short-term benefit to speed and reach the congestion before someone else who started from the same point and time but obeyed the limit, so they're ahead of the legal motorist in the queue - even if it prolongs the congestion (they won't care once they're through) or increases political pressure for road-building (they probably don't live where will be dug up and tarmacked over).

Is there any way to reduce the incentive to disobey congestion-managing speed limits better than more enforcement?
 

donnydave

Über Member
Location
Cambridge
It bloody annoys me when people do what the camera car was doing - sat just off the rear quarter hanging around the blind spot matching the speed of someone in the left hand lane. Pass or drop back, just make your mind up.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
It bloody annoys me when people do what the camera car was doing - sat just off the rear quarter hanging around the blind spot matching the speed of someone in the left hand lane. Pass or drop back, just make your mind up.
Huh? At first, their speed is limited by leaving a safe gap to the vehicles in front, then they let a silver car in. Also, they might be near the posted limit, so accelerating to pass might not be an option. Someone being overtaken is meant not to accelerate and obstruct it either... but in the vid, heavy traffic is travelling in lanes - why should the camera car drop back and so limit the road capacity further, just based on the small chance that the motorist on the left is incompetent and won't shoulder-check before moving right and they won't react to it quickly enough?

Completely unrelated to the windscreen kung-fu guy drifting into him from the right anyway, isn't it?
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
There might be an element of it but the same thing happens in heavy traffic for no reason. Someone brakes at a certain point and then everyone else following does the same in a kind of ripple effect, the name of which I forget but it's a recognised phenomenon and one of the reasons we now have large controlled sections of motorway to stop this kind of ripple effect.

Exactly. It's termed a "traffic wave". The phenomenon has been known about, and modelled, for around 60 years:

http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsa/229/1178/317.short
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
I see this all the time, though rarely ending in a collision, and never until now ending in someone drop-kicking their own rear window! Clear case of no shoulder-check, which IME most car drivers don't think they need to do.
 

toffee

Guru
[QUOTE 4246956, member: 9609"]did any of them try and jump though their own rear windscreens though? I've seen a llot of mad stuff on the roads but that seemed particularly bonkers.[/QUOTE]

I actually only watched it till the guy was walking back to the camera car.

Now re watched it I see what you mean.

Derek
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Driving standards and road manners are definitely getting worse. I blame the fact that there are no longer and Police on traffic patrol and hence the fear of a random catch has disappeared.
 
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